Mounted Slingers

[Icelander]

In the real world, the evidence that slings were ever used from horseback is, at best, spotty. To be charitable, that is. Another view is that there is no such evidence and that any mention of slings among mounted warriors refers to tertiary weapons that they might have used while dismounted.

One of the primary reasons why it is unlikely that any military would field mounted slingers is the obvious fact that horses are usually a fairly expensive piece of military gear. Slings, on the other hand, are generally used by those too poor to afford better weapons. So someone who can afford a horse can also afford a bow. While it is true that horses were not, comparatively speaking, as expensive among, for example, Amerinds after European contact as they were in the medieval world, they were still more expensive than a simple bow.

In addition to that economic reality, many authorities, ranging from airmchair experts to historians and hoplologists, have also pointed out that the sling requires more stability than other missile weapons to use. Accurate shooting on the move would be even harder with a sling than with bows or crossbows.

Some commentators also speculate that the position of a mounted man, seated behind the head of the horse, makes is difficult to use a sling effectively. Many common methods of use for the sling are precluded or made harder by the need to avoid hitting your mount in the head, which I understand is frowned upon by cavalrymen.

Generally, in GURPS, any condition which constrains the usages of a weapon and restricts the user to a limited subset of moves is represented mechanically by a penalty. Examples of such is the penalty to attack while using a shield or the effective penalty of defaulting a Sport skill to a Combat skill.

That's the real world, though. In GURPS, slings are hardly inferior to bows at all. In fact, for strong characters, they are superior to most firearms before TL6 and still competative with many common pistols at TL8. And it is no harder to use a sling while mounted than it is to use a carbine or pistol.

So there exists an incentive for players to have their characters use slings from horseback. Even, should they be so inclined, to learn Techniques that facilitate mounted slinging. Such characters can be explained as simply idiosyncratic or perhaps as coming from a culture where horses, perhaps captured from the wild, are plentiful whereas bows are unknown or at least somewhat rare.

At any rate, I am of the opion that if something is mechanically feasible, it works in the game world. So if something should not be done in the game, I'd like to have the rules back up the contention that it is a bad idea.

Intuitively, it seems right that it would be difficult to use a sling while seated on a horse. Granted, it is difficult to use any ranged weapon while on a moving horse, but it seems as if the position of a mounted man makes it particularly awkward to swing around a sling with any effect. At least bows don't hit your horse or yourself on the head if the slightest thing goes wrong.

I'll admit that I have little experience of riding, none at all of cavalry service and less than that of using real slings. I might, therefore, be wrong.

I appeal, therefore, to the forumites.

First of all, is it really harder to use a sling from horseback than it is to use other missile weapons?

Second, if so, how would one represent it mechanically? How much harder is it?

Third, can anyone recall if slings were used on horseback by any culture? For hunting or for war, doesn't matter.

Edit: I can't find an explicit reference that says so, but I've always assumed that the penalties for using handheld missile weapons from ground vehicles also applied to using them from mounts. This means a -1 on a good road, -3 on a bad one and -4 on rough terrain. Furthermore, I apply speed penalties whenever the attacker is moving anywhere else but directly at or from his target.

Neither of these penalties is mentioned in the section on mounted shooting in Basic (p. 397) or in MA, but if I didn't apply them, there would essentially be no penalty in using any kind of missile weapon from a galloping horse, except the minor one of not being allowed to Aim for more than one turn and being limited to your Riding skill.

So a character with skill 12 in both Riding and his chosen missile weapon would be equally effective shooting from a stationary horse, while standing on the ground or while galloping over broken ground. In all cases, he'd be shooting at a rate of 15 arrows or sling stones per minute and his effective skill would be (12+Acc-Range).

There would thus be no need to learn the techniques Horse Archery or Mounted Shooting, because there were no penalties to reduce with it. No penalties, that is, unless you planned to turn in the saddle and shoot or hang from the side of your mount, neither of which is standard for all cultures using missile weapons from mounts. Not applying these penalties means that any character with the Riding and Bow skills would be as effective in normal service in the role of a mounted archer as a specialist who has learned how from childhood how to shoot from horseback. And that's bollocks.